[A-List] US imperialism: the Soros version

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Soros prepared to dig deep to oust Bush
Guardian Online
Mark Tran
Thursday January 29, 2004

The 2004 US presidential election will be a referendum on the Bush doctrine
of preemptive military action, George Soros, the financier and
philanthropist declared today.

But getting rid of Mr Bush is not enough, Mr Soros argued, saying that the
US needs an alternative vision. The man who famously who made a fortune
betting against the pound in the late 80s, said America had "gone off the
rails" after September 11 and that it was important to "puncture the bubble
of American supremacy."

In London to promote his latest book, The Bubble of American Surpremacy - a
tirade against the Bush administration - Mr Soros told a packed auditorium
at the London School of Economics that he was prepared to use some of his
vast fortune to turf Mr Bush out of the White House.

Reiterating his willingness to put his money where his mouth is, Mr Soros
said: "I am ready to step in to rectify the disparity of money for Bush and
against Bush."

Pointing out that Open Society, the foundation he created to promote
democracy around the world has $450m (£248.4m) in assets, Mr Soros said he
was prepared to commit about $12.5m to "political action" against Mr Bush.
In fact, Mr Soros told the Washington Post in January that he has donated
$15.5m to groups dedicated to prising Mr Bush out of the Oval Office.

Expressing his concern at what he saw as a critical lack of debate on Mr
Bush's policies, Mr Soros said the president had wrapped himself in the flag
and accused the administration of having created an "Orwellian truth machine
that manufactures truth."

"It is ironic that the government of the most successful open society in the
world should have fallen into the hands of ideologues who ignore the first
principles of open society," Mr Soros writes in the Bubble of American
Supremacy. "Who would have thought... that the US itself could pose a threat
to open society? Yet that is what is happening, both internally and
internationally."

If Americans voted Mr Bush out in November, Mr Soros said, the Bush doctrine
would be seen as an aberration is US foreign policy, if not then the world
would have to live with the consequences. Mr Soros was not asked which
Democratic candidate he favoured, but he indicated how tough it would be to
beat the president because of the rude health of the US economy.

"Karl Rove (Mr Bush's top political strategist) has done an extremely good
job in pumping up the economy - he is the one who runs the economy - and
they have made a more or less jobless, but profitful recovery. It's been
very successful. The price will be paid in 2005 and afterwards," Mr Soros
said.

The Hungarian émigré said, however, that turfing Mr Bush out was not enough.
Mr Soros urged the development of what he called the community of
democracies that could form a more effective multilateral bloc outside the
UN.

"The formation of an influential democratic bloc of nations would change the
character of the UN, making it more effective in influencing the behaviour
of its members," Mr Soros writes in his book. "Repressive regimes would be
excluded from active decision making; failed states could be put under
protection of the UN. The currently insoluble problem of using the UN to
interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states could be on the way to
a solution."